Ontario Media Development Corp. CEO Michel Frappier announced his retirement on June 21. "Such decisions are never taken lightly, but I have never been more confident that the OMDC is in great shape, and is well-poised to continue its vital work with the cultural industries," 65-year-old Frappier said in a media release. He will remain in the position until mid-September to assure a smooth transition.
Prior to joining the corporation, which is charged with promoting investment in film, television, publishing, music and new media in the province of Ontario, Frappier led Future Source Communications, a multinational holding company, as CEO and president. He has also held senior positions at MDC Communication and Thomson Newspapers North America.

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Transcontinental snaps up Francophone websites
Montreal-headquartered media conglomerate Transcontinental Inc. recently acquired Zoupla Communications Inc., another Montreal firm which operates two popular Francophone Web properties, recettes.qc.ca and trucsmaison.com. Zoupla is a six-year-old company founded by Marc Gauthier and Nicolas Bonneau, and its acquisition makes Transcontinental the largest publisher of online recipes in the province. The recettes.qc.ca site alone receives close to 1,000,000 unique visitors monthly, and offers a weekly newsletter that boasts 137,000 subscribers; trucsmaison.com, meanwhile, features a database of user-submitted home maintenance and improvement tips. The deal is in line with Transcontinental’s Evolution 2010 strategy announced in November last year, which aims to transform the magazine, community newspaper and advertising publisher into a digital media heavyweight.

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The themes of royalties, success and technology dominated the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada’s (SOCAN) July 13th symposium in Vancouver’s International Film Centre. The auditorium was filled with comments and queries on the state of the Canadian music industry, copyrights, and new ventures, but impressions of Cuba Gooding Jr. infamous line – "Show me the money!" – were also in abundance. Featuring several information sessions on earning and receiving royalties, the event, titled The Business of Creating Music for Film, Television, and Video Games, did not disappoint.

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On July 16 intellectual property rights took the global stage with the release of Combating IPR Piracy and Counterfeiting from the G8 Group at the G8 Summit 2006 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Two days later, the issue got a national focus when a collective of Canadian creators-rights coalitions congratulated the federal government for being party to the statement.

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When the sci-fi show Ice Planet lands on CHUM Ltd.’s Space: The Imagination Station, viewers will be able to do a little exploring of their own on their cell phones and other mobile devices.

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Canadians involved in producing software for use in online casinos and other interactive gaming applications may have to strike the United States off their travel plans, at least in the short-term.

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